Dead Flies and Little Birds (Part 2 of 2)

You may have heard somebody say at one time or another, once a fool always a fool. Well the teacher in Ecclesiastes points out to us the many ways we can spot both folly and wisdom. Today on Truth for Life we'll learn how even a foolish person can be transformed.

Alistair Begg is teaching today from chapter 10 of Ecclesiastes. Now, when you come to chapter 10, he provides us, if you like, with the identical picture of folly. Here we see folly walking the streets, scaling the heights, propounding its notions. And what I want to do is simply track a line through it with you, identifying, first of all, in verses 1–4, folly as we find it on the street. Or folly, if you like, down at ground level. Well, from folly on the street to folly in high places—that's what he's referring to in verse 5 and following, and also verses 16 and 17. Thirdly, folly at work.

Verses 8–11 and verse 15. Folly at work. Whoever digs a pit may fall into it. Whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. He goes through these various things.

And if chapter 10 may be summarized under the heading Be Sensible, then this little section may fall under the heading Be Realistic. And the pit which traps its maker, you will find, if you read, for example, in the Psalms, that it is a picture of poetic justice. In Psalm 7 verse 15, Psalm 9 verse 15, Psalm 35 verse 7, you will find that this whole picture of digging a pit and then falling into it yourself is a picture of poetic justice. And the grabbing impact of an unnoticed serpent is the image in the Old Testament of a lurking retribution.

Verse 10 provides us with a blinding glimpse of the obvious. If the axe is dull and its edge is unsharpened, you're going to have to beat like crazy on the wood, and all you're going to do is smash it and crash it and bump it. But if you would take the time to sharpen the axe before you begin, if you would bring skill rather than strength to bear upon it, if you would bring inspiration rather than perspiration, then, of course, your endeavor will be met with far greater success. But the fool says, I don't want to take time to sharpen the axe.

I don't want to take time to make preparations. Let me just give me the thing and let me get at it. And so he flails away, makes a dreadful mess. And any sensible person, particularly his wife, can see that if only he would have taken a couple of minutes to have the thing sharpened, then all of the wood would have been chopped, and we would be ready to leave now.

But instead, we've got wood all over the place, perspiration running down his back, a little more skill and a little more strength, and things would be so different. Verse 11 takes us back to the comedic picture, doesn't it? If a snake bites before its charm, there's no profit for the charmer. And so we picture the fool deciding that he's going to take himself out into the bazaar, and he's going to do something bizarre. That is, he's going to charm snakes, and so he puts the snake in the basket, and he sets it down, and he gets ready.

He fiddles around looking for his flute, which, because he's so silly, he probably has left somewhere. And while he's just getting ready to charm the snake, the snake gets so tired of waiting in the basket that it pops his head out and bites Mrs. Jenkins, who was waiting for the event to begin. It's going to be very difficult, then, for the snake charmer, having not done any charming, to do a little charging. It's such a foolish venture.

The snake bites before its charm, no profit for the charmer. Folly blusters ahead when it should wait. Folly delays unduly when it is time to proceed. The work of a fool, verse 15, is just an absolute weariness to him. He doesn't know the way to town.

He makes things needlessly difficult for himself. Now, fourthly, I want you to notice Folly in words. Verse 15.

Verse 12, I should say, Words from a wise man's mouth are gracious, But a fool is consumed by his own lips. It's quite a picture, isn't it? Somebody being consumed by their own lips. In fact, it is a feat, an unimaginable feat.

It makes me think of the early days of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and when they would go into the animation and the things would do quite incredible things. And what you have here is the cannibal committing suicide the way he knows best. The fool consumes himself. A fool's lips, as Solomon may bring him strife, His mouth invites a beating. Not that he's dull, but that he is wrongheaded. He refuses to begin with God.

He refuses to begin with wisdom. Therefore, there's no surprise when his words, having begun, verse 13, in Folly, end up as wicked madness. Now, I flick through the channels, same as you do. I have the basic whatever you can get so that I can minimize the impact of mayhem and craziness as it appeals to my sinful propensities and as it reaches in to try and grab my attention.

I have minimized the risk as best as it is possible without taking the television and throwing it out into the back garden. But just in the course of the routine journey of the average male, clicking through the thing, you are confronted routinely by madness and by wickedness. Just by madness and wickedness. And you find yourself saying, Where in the world does all this wickedness and all this madness come from?

Well, the answer is here. At the beginning his words are folly, and at the end they are wicked madness. The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. Therefore, there is no one to whom we are accountable. There is no one whom we have to serve. There is no one before whom we will one day stand and be facing judgment.

Having removed the possibility of all of that, then it is just a continual slide into ever-deepening experiences of madness and wickedness. We are meant to be taken by surprise. Verse 14, his words are multiplied.

It doesn't prevent him, the fact that his words are foolish, it doesn't prevent him from keeping on and on and postulating. All of us know this. We have foolish moments. But what is being described here is something far more essential, far more serious. It is a description of the ungodly, whose way of speaking reveals their condition and ultimately their destiny. That the way of speaking reveals their destiny. Listen to Jesus in Matthew 12.

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil—notice—say anything good? One of the ways you will know that you have become a Christian is by the change in your language. The things that you praise will change.

The songs that you sing will change. The profanity that you use will go. But the idea of hastening now towards January the first, in order that I might get a hold of my tongue, in order that I might transform my circumstances, it is a forlorn hope, you brood of vipers. How can you who are evil actually say anything good?

Why do you say that, Jesus? Well, let me tell you, he says, for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Your problem is not your tongue.

Your problem is your heart. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.

And then listen to this. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. What is he saying? He's saying this, that the heart that is transformed by the wisdom of God will be revealed in the phraseology and the use of language. And the heart that remains unchanged and remains in its foolishness will equally be revealed by its language. And those words, once spoken, according to verse 20, are beyond the ability of the fool to control them. And don't revile the king even in your thoughts, because if you think about it, you'll probably say it. Don't curse the rich in your bedroom.

Don't go up and have that little private tirade, apparently with yourself. Because a little bird may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say. Isn't it amazing how when you say good things, you can't get them to where you want them to go? When you say bad things, everybody hears them? You jam your fingers in the door, and you say something you shouldn't say, and your children say, Oh, I heard that! Why did you say that? I was down the stairs.

I heard you. But when you're doing something different, it never seems to go there. And it's an interesting picture, isn't it, that we say to our children, you know, be very careful, a little bird.

A little bird. And that's exactly what the wise men say. You don't have any control over your words. Now, finally, just a thought. Folly on the street, folly in high places, folly at work, folly in our words, and finally, folly in the end. Folly in the end. Being a fool in this life means facing the next life totally unprepared. Being a fool in this life means facing the next life totally unprepared. If you don't deal with the folly now, you're not going to have a chance to deal with it after you die. Do you understand that? If you choose still to live in absolute folly, and you die, you will die in your foolishness.

And there will be no opportunity of reparation or forgiveness or change. The fool misses the feast. Verse 19. A feast is made for laughter, wine makes life merry, money is the answer for everything. What is he saying here?

Well, remember his perspective, but don't dismiss it too quickly. What he's pointing out is that God's wholesome gifts are good, and when used properly, they're delightful, and they're perfectly sufficient. That God is a God who gives us all things richly to enjoy—the enjoyment of food, not the sin of gluttony, the enjoyment of fidelity within the framework of married sexuality, not immorality, the enjoyment of laying up with our resources, treasures in heaven, rather than just amassing things on earth. God has planned and purposed that in his wisdom we may enter fully into that, that the Christian of all people ought to be able to enjoy life, ought to be able to enjoy a sunset more than anyone else, the joy of a fresh morning, the companionship of friends, a visit to the stores, the satisfaction of a good meal, the wonder of beautiful music from the orchestra, and so on.

Nobody ought to get more out of it than the Christian. But the fool doesn't go. The fool misses it completely. And he's so idle that he probably explains that money is a bad thing and should be resisted at all costs, and then he discovers here that money is the answer for everything. What does that mean? Where does he come up with these kind of statements?

What is he saying? I think what he's saying is simply this, that of all the gifts that we can be given, money is the most versatile of all those gifts. Money's the most versatile of all the gifts.

Remember, Jesus makes this dramatic statement in Luke chapter 16, which we stumbled over when we studied it a long time ago now. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself, so that when it's gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Use your money wisely. He said, I gave you money.

Make sure you use it wisely. And money is the most versatile of all gifts. Remember when you were married, and you got all those presents, and you sat around, and you took another box with one of those dreadful flat trays on which you put who knows what? I mean, they come—they're always about this size.

You know them now by the box, and they add a little bit of scrolling or something on the end or whatever it might be. You can put everything on it, but frankly, you don't want it. Certainly, when you've got to the seventh or the eighth one, and they're all laid out in a pile, your girlfriend, your wife as she is now, looks across at you and says, I wish they'd given us the money. I wish they'd given us the money.

Of course, so do I! Because I don't have enough money to put stuff on all these plates that they've bought for me. If they gave me six less plates and money in its place, then I would be able to buy something and put it on the one plate that I wanted to keep. But then I have seven plates and no money. If they gave me the money, then I have versatility.

It's the point that he's making. This is wonderful, that's wonderful, and money is the most versatile of all the gifts. That's why it's the gravest responsibility to those who are entrusted with much of it. But you don't have to run around frowning and groaning, as it were, and apologizing, because it is God who gives you the ability to make money.

And given the versatility of your giftedness, you have the opportunity to spread it and to use it in multiple ways, in a way that someone else doesn't, because their gifts are different. But the fool, he's not at the feast. No, look at the fool. Verse 18, he's in his house with the sagging rafters, dodging the leaks, moving the plastic pails around to catch the water to prevent the puddles from landing on his threadbare rugs. What is the problem with this man while he skipped Wisdom 101? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

He rejected that, and it all went from there. Listen to me as carefully as you can, especially young people. I've observed something through my years. Most people who turn aside from foolishness to embrace wisdom do so when they're young. And those who remain foolish and repeat their foolishness and compound their foolishness often die as fools. Therefore, the indications would seem to be that when in your youthfulness, as you set up your life, as you make your plans, as you think these things out, it is imperative that you turn from folly to wisdom. For sin is folly. And it is folly because it is disobedience true, and it is rebellion against the will of God, who has made you, who loves you, who sustains you, and who will finally assess you. What could be more foolish in the minds of people this morning than the message of the gospel itself?

That the death of Jesus, this baby born in Bethlehem, living a sinless life, keeping all of the works of the Father, doing all of the law in its exactitude, dies upon the cross, a sinless man, and by his death and the shedding of his blood, he makes provision for our sins and enables us to be reconciled to God. No, says the wise person in the greater Cleveland area. That sounds so foolish to me. Well, the Bible knows you're going to say that, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent.

I will frustrate. Bring on the scholars. Where is the wise man?

Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. God was pleased through the foolishness of this crummy sermon from Ecclesiastes 10 to save all and any this morning who will believe. Not because the sermon is good. Not because the speaker is passionate. Not because your inclinations are peculiarly towards God, for none of the above may be true, but simply to show that he is God in all of this manifold wisdom. He deigns to use the voice of mere mortals and such circumstances as this to take a life and bring it to the great wisdom of the cross.

Are you there? Did you begin the day with folly? Will you end the day with wicked madness? Did you begin the day of your life with folly?

Yes, you did. For all of us, like sheep, have gone astray. We're not in a morally neutral position whereby we may choose folly or embrace wisdom. We have already chosen folly.

The very fact that we disregard God is indicative of that. And so he comes to us, and he says here, what should you do? Well, just cry out from your heart, Lord Jesus Christ, I am so foolish. Give me your wisdom to see and follow your truth.

Lord Jesus Christ, I am so foolish. I don't listen to my parents. I don't listen to my teachers.

I just don't listen to anybody. I'm foolish, Lord Jesus. Give me your grace that I might see and follow your truth.

And the promise of the Bible is that the person who cries out in such a way from their hearts, he absolutely promises to grant that to you. All in all, in a summary phrase, be sensible about these things. The starting place for wisdom, according to the Bible, is the fear of the Lord. You're listening to Truth for Life. Alistair Begg has been urging us to turn from folly to wisdom. He'll be back with us in just a minute to close today's program. If you prayed along with Alistair at the end of the program and you'd like to know more about the gospel, about what it means to follow Christ, you can watch a couple of videos available on our website.

They're only six or seven minutes long. Visit truthforlife.org slash learn more. Now you may be listening to Alistair today on a local radio station or hearing the program through your smartphone or your tablet.

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You may have heard me mention today's recommendation. It's a brand new book titled Being the Bad Guys, How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn't. The world used to be friendlier to the church, or at least it felt that way, but right now it seems like there is opposition toward those who believe in the Bible. In the book Being the Bad Guys, the author explains we shouldn't be surprised when our culture turns against us. Instead, we honor Christ by continuing to live in a winsome and holy manner.

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Go to our website truthforlife.org slash donate. Now here's Alistair to close with prayer. Father God, for the Bible we thank you. For your Son, the Lord Jesus, in his atoning death we bless you. For the Holy Spirit who convicts and convinces us and converts us, we praise your name. And now, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, may your grace, mercy, and peace rest upon and remain with each one who believes, today and forevermore. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we'll learn how to make the most out of every opportunity God puts in front of us. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.